Oswestry event to raise support for refugees

Mum and local businesswoman Jools Payne decided to galvanise public support after an interview with a Syrian woman called Hamsa on radio moved her to tears.

She is being backed by Shropshire Council leader Keith Barrow and the council partnership company, ip&e, to set up a task force of volunteers and work with agencies to prepare to welcome families to the area.

Mrs Payne, who runs a PR business in Oswestry, will be at Festival Square from 10am-1pm on Saturday with members of the ip&e company.

"We are putting together a very innovative response to the crisis involving Ip&e, different agencies that could offer support and volunteers and hope this could become a model for other areas to follow," she said.

"Unlike the council, Ip&e can act quickly, more creatively and without the shackles of bureaucracy that local authorities have to follow."

"This way we hope we can everything in place to welcome Syrian families when they arrive in Oswestry and in the wider Shropshire."

People going along to Festival Square will be able to register their support and pledges of help to Syrian refugees and also express an concerns that they might have.

"We will be handing out informations leaflets about what people can do."

"We will also be signposting people who want to donate items to the Chalk enterprise which is collecting donations of clothing for refugees in Calais," Mrs Payne said.

"I wanted a way for people in this area to be able to show solidarity with the Syrians and also a way to give out accurate information."

"It was when I listened to a radio interview of a Syrian woman called Hamsa that I realised I had to do something. Hamsa is a mother of three - as I am. She has been capsized in the sea, slept out on a railway station and cut through fences to give her children safety and security. She simply wants to care for her children, as we all do."

Mrs Payne has had T-shirt printed with a map of Syria and the words, I am Hamsa, on them which she will sell on Saturday.

Meanwhile, staff from Seventh Heaven Antique Beds in Chirk, Chirk Mill Antiques and Chalk, a community project in Oswestry, will take two vans out to help migrants in Calais during the first week in October.

As well as donated items from clothing to tents and sleeping bags, the organisers are appealing for donations of money to fund the cost of the fuel and the ferry tickets.

Tracy Butler from Seventh Heaven said: "We have grouped together to take two vans out to Calais to distribute the desperately needed items to the people ourselves. I've always given but never been involved in any charity work to this degree and personally am looking forward to helping as much as I possibly can.

"We have lots of people donating a good variety of items from tents, blankets, coats and wellies to washing up bowls and toiletries. Bottled water is a must so any spare money we have from ferry tickets, fuel and hiring the vans will be spent on water.

"We hope that people will help just by giving a small amount as it all adds up. We understand that people have very different views on the immigrants and refugees in Calais but bottom line is that there are children, women and elderly human beings that genuinely need help amongst them."

"We are currently trying to find out what they desperately need but tents, tarpaulins, pegs, coats, blankets, sleeping bags will be on the list for certain.

"Seventh Heaven/Chirk Mill Antiques is a dropping off point at Chirk and as is Chalk in Oswestry."